Salt Lake City leaders look to clean up, develop Depot District

SALT LAKE CITY (Deseret News) — A west-side pocket plagued by vacant and rundown warehouses, the city's Depot District could be the capital's next neighborhood to score a makeover.

The Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency already owns 13 acres of land around the Salt Lake Central Station and has a major opportunity to "clean up the area and set the table for development," planners and city leaders said Tuesday.

"We need to make a place here," RDA chairman Luke Garrott said. "We're not going to be waving our magic wand and creating a mega-development here like Gateway."

Instead, it will take time — and a mix of public and private dollars — to transform the beleaguered neighborhood east of the FrontRunner transit hub into a "commuter village" that would appeal to younger tenants and "less corporate" local businesses, city officials said.

"It's probably not a retail district because it's kind of isolated," said Marilee Utter of Citiventure Associates. "(But) it can be a very cool place with a lot of appeal."

Citiventure, a Denver-based planning firm, released a report on a potential direction for the neighborhood after holding a two-day workshop in November.